Blade & Soul – China server announces Free-to-Play model

Yes, it has been confirmed. The China server for Blade & Soul, under publisher Tencent Games, will be utilizing a Free-to-Play business model, together with a cash shop of course.

There will also be a VIP subscription call “Blade & Soul member” available, which will give players various benefits such as special titles, avatars, more stored stamina, faster mediation, increased MP recovery (+5%), base defense (+3%) and base HP (+3%). All benefits are account-wide.

VIP subscription will come in different duration, such as 7 days, 30 days, and 90 days (more to be added apparently). Costumes will be given for subscribing, although the duration is not stated.

The subscription fee for 30 days is reported by several media outlets to be around 10.00 CNY (not officially confirmed, I am guessing this is an error and the price for 7 days instead), which is just 1.62 USD.

Tencent Games will be opening up topup services to test out the cash shop for the upcoming Closed Beta 3 phase next month, with all amounts to be reverted back to accounts once non-wipe Open Beta begins. All cash shop costumes will not have any stats on them.

According to unofficial reports, upgrade enhancement items will be sold in the cash shop, similar to most Asian MMORPGs. There is currently no official launch date (Open Beta) for Blade & Soul China.

About the Author

cinderboy Your average online gamer who is bilingual in Chinese and English, although he does try to play Japanese and Korean games sometimes. Might have a short fuse, but like every gamer, he is just human and is soft on the inside. Online gaming since 1999.

No! No! No! I used to love playing Aion before it went free to play but when it went free to play the community went to hell! The constant spam in chat is crazy annoying and the fact that NCsoft had to make it so people couldn’t even talk until lvl 20 after the game changed to F2P shows that there’s a glaring problem with the community.

I really really hope it doesn’t become F2P because NCsoft already forever ruined one game for me by changing it to F2P.

WHY NOT , Why Not Making the game FREE TO PLAY from the Beginning .. The Korean version still has a CASH SHOP in this “P2P” game so what’s the point of saying ” NO ” , What if the Payment system becomes ” Optional ” Unlike the Chinese version , One for people who prefer paying monthly users ( Like you ) and the other one for Free to play users , A TWO Completely different servers to make you feel better when the “business model” has nothing to do with the game experience or even the In-game Content .. ITS THE SAME EXPERIENCE ,my P2P fellows .. You just don’t want the community to grow up and you just want the game to die slowly because honestly and with all respect most people like you are simply Selfish and doesn’t what the best for the game itself .

Waaaaaaait. So supporting a game with monthly subs is being deemed selfish? Wtf.

I hope this game stays P2P in the west, too. The reason is I don’t believe F2P games will be able to survive long enough. I mean sure, if it’s not working transition to F2P, but it’s always worth trying P2P first, especially considering Blade & Soul was a hit in Korea.

I’ve been playing F2P forever. And recently I have come to the conclusion, that F2P will die. Gaming gets more expensive with every year, with development costs becoming crazier and crazier.
And we see it every year. More and more F2P games close down because of lack in revenue. Now people will point at me and say: “But hey, didn’t almost every new P2P game go F2P eventually lately?” My answer is yes, but how long do you think those will survive? Without constant income to pay for new content development, how long will those games stay interesting? All hardcore gamers know it, games do not stay interesting forever unless there are constant content patches. And let’s face reality here. Content costs money, and with game development becoming more expensive, I don’t see a future for F2P titles.

Alot of F2P titles are huge cash-ins. Hell, even most F2P transitions are. They realize they can’t make money of their game so they transition to a F2P model. Now, there is always a chance the community might support the game. But it is rare and a risk most devs would rather not take, especially after putting millions into development.

TL;DR: At least B2P if not P2P in the west or closure tragedy incoming.

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MMO Culture is a small website focused on reporting the latest and most interesting news from the online gaming world. Covering regions such as South Korea, China, Taiwan, Japan, Southeast Asia, North America and Europe, the aim is to keep gamers informed of all MMO cultures!